Ready to Meet the Lord
Photo by Troy Holden
I’m on the 47 on my way to work and had been listening to the mutterings of the man across the aisle from me. He was carrying a garbage bag of his belongings and a paper bag with unspecified booze; and he was getting louder and louder.
“Lord Jesus, I’m ready to die,” he said. “I have no job, I have no money,” (the girl next to him gets up to stand somewhere away from him), “I have my momma’s debt, my daddy’s debt, and I’m ready to die because I don’t want to be nobody’s bother.” Everyone looks away awkwardly, including me. The man starts laughing about something else. Then I realize that we weren’t moving.
I looked up and a cleanly dressed younger guy in the front of the bus was talking to the driver, pointing at the drunkard. “He’s drinking alcohol…openly…” I overhear him telling the drivers.
Really?
The drunk wasn’t really bothering anybody except for our guilty conscience, and he didn’t even smell. How are you trying to kick the drunk guy off the bus after he said he’s ready to meet his death because he has nothing? And isn’t a drunk man muttering to himself a regular sight on Muni? The driver got up and glanced at the drunkard, who said, “Don’t mind me, I’m just waking up.” The driver sat back down and started driving again.
Because of the “good Samaritan,” I missed the connecting train I was trying to catch, which is just one of my many first-world problems. I guess it’s just another Monday.
Same well-dressed dude was probably quoted yesterday on Hayes Street while drinking Gatorade ‘n vodka as “I love this City. We couldn’t have an event like this everywhere else.” Seriously, less than 24 hours after half the city under the age of 30 tried to have an open air booze walk from side to side of the City, I think we may want to lay off the poor guy on the 47.
@JC. Who cares is responsible/working people drink Vodka and Gatorade in Hayes Valley? Are you kidding me….? The alcoholics and derelicts that tend to monopolize Bart and Muni are at best an annoyance, and at worst a danger to themselves and others.
Your trite slap at people you consider to be yuppies is the trivial rant of a serial San Francisco dullard.
The alcoholic/BUM on Muni did not pay a fare (99% sure) and was openly drinking alcohol. The fact the the overly compensated, Union Driver wouldn’t deign to deal with the problem is another matter. If the same drunk cut someone’s head off with a sword the Muni guy probably wouldn’t hang up their cell phone.
@runnz I think the people whose lawns and homes have been getting pissed on in Hayes Valley for the past 10+ years care but that’s probably for another blog. Must note if you’re thinking there weren’t many alcoholics in that bunch, the stats are probably not in your favor. And not that they are necessarily alcoholics, but at least a score per year of overindulgers have been getting shipped to the ER from the B2B course for years. Sounds like this year wasn’t too much different.
As to the Muni angle of this, go ahead, please assume the guy didn’t pay his fare and is likely to, yes, cut someone head’s off with the sword he had hidden in his trash bag. I will give you credit, the addition of the sword to the hypo saves yours from being a trivial rant of a San Francisco dullard.
Was just trying to say that using public consumption as a reason to try and hold up people’s commute 24 hours after half the city was openly boozing? Ironic. And I, who have lived in the most unquestionably yuppie neighborhood in SF for 15+ years and am myself a proud one, appreciate irony.